- THE THREE SOUND OF REVOLUTION / RING SOUND / MIDDLE SOUND / INDEX SOUND
ILYICH (Anton Kats)
(Ukraine)
Bio:
Anton Kats (r. 1983 Kherson, Ukraine) works as an artist, musician and educator.
Anton’s practice draws from the everyday, inspired by the complex narratives of
Satelite Island a south-Ukrainian neighbourhood in the port city of Kherson. Leaving Ukraine in the year 2000 to claim asylum in Germany Kats’ work is complemented by the urgencies of displacement and the pragmatics of self-legalisation in Europe by way of entering formal institutions of education. In reverberations of this process, Kats was awarded a practice-based PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London and invited to documenta14 where he initiated the Narrowcast House and the A-Letheia projects.
Anton’s work is motivated by the questions of agency and intentionality. Flexibly augmenting art practice through sound, music, performance, radio and research Kats develops responsive and site-specific projects exploring the interdependencies of learning, displacement and the non-normative. Kats’s practice emphasises artistic research protocols and embraces sculptures and installations, objects and drawings, concerts, lectures, performances, poems, films, radio shows, radio plays, vinyl releases and publications.
Methodologically conceiving spaces of imagination Anton is motivated to generate practical knowledge emerging through art as a mode of critical inquiry. Often driven by the context of diverse practitioners Kats willingly initiates collaborative works, nomadic music ensembles and artist residencies, learning sites, libraries, listening spaces and experimental academic curricula.
Exploring the potentiality of art practice within formal and informal frameworks Anton’s projects evenly take place in galleries and museums, concert venues, clubs and radio stations, as well as in cultural and academic institutions, and public spaces. Situated between performance art and music performance, Anton tours as ILYICH and hosts the Listening Hymns, a radio show at the Refuge Worldwide Radio in Berlin. Kats was a lecturer at NYU, The New School, and Goldsmiths University. At present Kats facilitates the Artists in Exile program at The Berlin University of the Arts (UDK) and the Great Sound seminar at the MA Spatial Strategies, Kunsthochschule Weißensee, Berlin
Anton’s works have been introduced through the SAVVY Contemporary, Serpentine Galleries, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, BBC 6 Music, Victoria and Albert Museum, The Lot Radio, the Showroom Gallery, Bergen Kunsthall, Sonic Acts, Roskilde and Fusion Festivals, CCA Berlin – Center for Contemporary Arts, Kochi Muziris Biennale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (H.K.W.), 10th Berlin Biennale, and at the documenta14 in Athens and Kassel among others.
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Listening Hymns with ILYICH
Listening Hymns is a performative spoken word archive that invites you to explore the practice of listening through the voices of artists, musicians, poets, writers, educators, athletes, meditators, and activists. Listening Hymns celebrates the worlds of listening through sonic and somatic practices, culture and politics, anti-fascism, critical practice/theory, spirituality, intersectional feminism, and community building, among other disciplines. The archive is shared through radio shows, university lectures, sound meditations, listening sessions, exhibitions, and musical performances under the many names of the artist.
ILYICH is a multi-instrumentalist musician, sound artist, producer, and DJ reincarnated in Kherson, Ukraine.
Fusing music, performance, and sound art, ILYICH creates immersive sonic and visual worlds rooted in jazz, improvisation, storytelling, and electronic music. Their projects have brought together visionary collaborators such as Twin Shadow, Takuya Nakamura, Cheap Collective, Floyd Lavine, and Ukrainian jazz talents Valery Volkov and Andrii Barmalii, alongside experimental performers like Ligia Lewis and Corey Scott-Gilbert.
ILYICH’s work spans live and studio releases with Nervous Records and Lot Radio in New York, features on Gilles Peterson’s BBC 6 Music, and standout performances at Roskilde and Fusion festivals. Their projects have been showcased in cultural venues including Sonic Acts in Amsterdam, SAVVY Contemporary, House of World Cultures (H.K.W.), Sophiensæle Theatre in Berlin and the Serpentine Galleries in London,
Rooted in both the tangible and the fantastical, ILYICH founded the nomadic artist residency and music ensemble Grounded Outer Space People and hosts Listening Hymns on Refuge Worldwide Radio.
